Midway Arcade Treasures

The lack of presentation glitz is the only thing wrong with this 24 pack of perfectly emulated arcade games.

Old videogames never die, they just return in classic compilation packs. As gaming hardware increases in power and capabilities, the more it's possible for the programmers to actually emulate the classic gaming hardware. It's nothing new...developers have been emulating system hardware for more than a half decade or more, both as a hobby and as commercial products. Midway was probably the first company to truly capitalize on the ingenious idea of recycling its old arcade games in new packs, and the company again returns to this scene with Midway Arcade Treasures, 24 arcade games released by Williams, Midway, and Atari Games released in the 80s thrown on a disc for less than 20 bucks. The game's presentation is awful and disappointing compared to other classic compilation packs on the market (Activision Anthology has nothing to worry about), but the emulations are spot-on, and the pricetag and value alone is worth the purchase.

For Midway Arcade Treasures, the publisher recruited Digital Eclipse once again to handle the emulation of the arcade hardware and the development of the front end. The 24 arcade games span more than a decade of gaming, from Defender in 1980 to Smash TV in 1990. These games are accurate because they're the exact graphics, sound and programming code that ran in the arcade machines, emulated to run on the specific console hardware and controller.

Many of the games on the disc retain their fun and addictiveness, even to today's standards. Robotron 2084 is still a fantastically frantic 8-way shooter that has a great graphical update in the form of Smash TV released almost a decade later. Joust couldn't get any better than its original design...despite being revisited in a slightly less imaginative sequel also on the disk. Defender and its follow-up still offer that intense adrenaline rush when you get into that "zone", and Blaster is a little-seen 3D-esque shooter that's a real blast if you can see past the technical limitations. Since Midway purchased Atari Games (the arcade division of Atari established in 1983), there are a handful games under that brand as well. Roadblasters is much like a 3D version of Spy Hunter, also included on the disk.

Just because they're considered "classic" doesn't automatically make them "good" in emulation form Splat for example, is an unreleased Bally arcade game included on the disk, and when you see it in action, you'll know why you never saw it in your local arcade. Gauntlet was great action game in the arcade, but it just doesn't work all that well on the console since players have the "quarter" button freely available on the controls to buy in as much health as they want...making the game incredibly boring as a result.

Many of these arcade games actually utilized specialized controllers that the analog sticks of the console versions just can't simulate. Yes, Robotron and Smash TV are wonderfully representated with the dual sticks, and Sinistar's 49-way control is brilliantly represented in analog form. But some games on the compilation didn't even use the traditional joystick. Marble Madness, for example, used a set of trackballs for the two player game. Super Sprint featured a weighted steering wheel that players whipped and caught to send their cars turning around on the screen. Rampart, an awesome arcade design using a trackball, is near frustrating to play on both the console's digital pad and analog stick. Digital Eclipse did as good a job as possible considering the controller limitations, even offering a way to alter the button layout to customize play...but why can't I assign the right analog stick as the "tap" function in Root Beer Tapper? That would have definitely simulated the arcade design much more accurately.